Adobe Reader DC not opening hyperlinks

Report · Aug 16, 2017

Hello,

We generate PDF files to provide customers with their case results.

These documents contain hyperlinks. However, they do not work with the latest version of Adobe Reader DC for desktop or mobile. I already checked all settings within Adobe Reader DC and still does not work.

It works fine with Adobe Reader XI on desktop.

Do we have to modify the way we generate PDF files so Adobe Reader DC can handle hyperlinks properly on desktop and mobile? Or is it a bug on your end with this version that applies to all PDF documents generated by a non Adobe software product?

I can provide a sample PDF document as well.

Please let me know.

Report · Aug 31, 2017

I have confirmed that the links in the PDF posted in this thread by ITXX on August 17th do not work in the current version 17.012.20098 of Acrobat Reader DC.

Report · Aug 31, 2017

Hi andrewg91311646

I have sent you a message, please check and confirm.

Thanks,

-ashu

Report · Aug 31, 2017

Hi Ashumittal, I was able to get the links working by changing my Acrobat preferences to disable text selection for highlights, strikethrough and underline in the Commenting preferences as you suggested.

This is not a workable solution for us as we can't expect our clients to have to modify the default Acrobat settings in order to use documents from us.

Report · Aug 29, 2017

I experience the same. only "true" hyperlinks work. Also have W10

Report · Aug 29, 2017

I can confirm 2017.012.20098 fixed our issue with mailto hyperlinks on third party generated pdf files.

We are using windows 7 SP1 64bit. Thanks. I'm not sure about other hyperlinks but i'll reach out to our other user that is having the hyperlink problem.

Report · Aug 30, 2017

Our issue is now resolved in this matter, thanks very much team!!!! Link click thru is as it was before.....

Mark

Report · Aug 31, 2017

Great, thanks for confirmation markh43819352!

-ashu

Report · Aug 31, 2017

Hi. Both my laptops and my desktop have the 20098 Aug 30 upgrade. The laptops now can access my previously created PDFs links fine now (they couldn't a few weeks ago) but the desktop still has the same problem. I just did a reinstall on that desktop and same problem. So no, the problem is still not fixed if only 2 out of 3 computers in a person's home are able to access the links, which all worked perfectly on all of my computers at the beginning of August.

Of course changing settings is not a viable option for clients per the above message. I have thousands of customers who need to open links on my PDFs! Please come up with a fix for the problem rather than a band-aid which won't work across the board.

Edited to add: I went to the Commenting section (per the above comment as you advised) of both of the laptops which have working links and the "Enable text selection for highlights..." is checked. As it is on the desktop that will not access the links. So that setting is the same on both the working links and non working links. ????

Then I unchecked the setting on the desktop and the links do indeed now work after doing so.

But how does that make sense that the links work just fine with that highlight setting checked on the laptops but didn't work with the same setting checked on the desktop?? And now the desktop works but with the setting the opposite???

Report · Sep 01, 2017

Hi,

We are aware of the root cause and fix will be included in our next planned update.

Thanks,

-ashu

Report · Sep 01, 2017

That's good to know. About when can we expect that update?

Report · Sep 02, 2017

Update: It's now 2 days after my last message above.Just tested the links again, and the ones which were suddenly clickable again only 2 days ago on my laptops are not working now. The software version is still listed as 20098, but clearly something changed behind the scenes. So this means that without changing the default settings (and what client would know to do that??), none of the links from the affected PDFs can be accessed, just like before.

Report · Sep 14, 2017

When is the next update planned?

Report · Sep 15, 2017

Yes, please let us know as soon as possible. We do not want our customers either to have to change their settings to click links in the PDFs we send them. In any case, the settings workaround does not work on my laptop. I get the same as others: the hand points a finger at the link but the link (web or email) does not open.

Report · Oct 02, 2017

Hi Ashu, is there any timeline for this update coming out?

Report · Oct 31, 2017

Okay. It is now around 3 months since this issue was caused by an update. you all know about it, you know that it is a huge issue for many thousands (if not more) people, and yet nothing has been done to correct the problem. The links that worked before your update still do not work! I don't understand how it was fixed in early September, then 2 days later (as I mentioned in a previous message) the links again were not working. Please advise what you are doing and when we can expect an update. The times you've been asked by me and other posters in the past couple of months we've all been blown off. I am sorry to sound testy about this, but the hours I've spend addressing this problem have pushed me over the edge.

Report · Nov 01, 2017

Add me to the chorus wondering when the fix will be released. It's amazing that Adobe has not fixed this - it's so basic.

I routinely distribute PDFs generated from macOS Microsoft Word, and now every time I do so I have to apologize to the recipients that links don't work and/or tell them to read the documents in a different non-Adobe reader (where they do work).

Report · Nov 14, 2017

I just updated to 2018.009.20044 and see that this issue remains until I click the "Enable Editing" button at the top of the screen that appears next to "This file claims compliance with the PDF/A standard and has been opened read-only to prevent modification."

Was this the intended fix or can we expect a fix in the future that will work when the user opens a file without having to adjust settings or enable editing?

Report · Nov 14, 2017

Thanks for letting us know about the update. I updated my PC desktop and the links now work as they did before. So it's odd that you are having to go an extra step, which of course is not helpful to your clients.

Please, can someone from Adobe answer this: I don't understand why the update didn't happen automatically this time. I didn't do anything to my laptop to see if it would update on it's own, and not, it's still the previous non-linking version. I had to manually update the PC. Before, the evil August update that took away the linking capacities occurred behind the scenes without any action on my part. I thought with the latest version of Acrobat DC that the updating happened automatically, since the ability to choose how and when to update was taken away. I didn't receive any notification that an update was available, I wouldn't have known one was unless I read Andrew's post. Because if my customers don't know that an update is available, this "fix" is not going to really help us.

Report · Nov 14, 2017

Hi stevieland

Glad to know that the issue is resolved. Please note that Acrobat DC updates are automatic and silent and it takes three-four days for a majority of users to get updated to latest version. We released the updated only yesterday and your installation would have been updated in due course without any manual intervention.

Thanks,

-ashu

Report · Nov 14, 2017

Hi andrewg91311646

The message you are seeing is unrelated to the hyperlinks fix.

Is this message appearing for all files or a specific file? It looks likely that the PDF document is indeed PDF/A compliant and hence triggering the corresponding yellow bar.

Thanks,

-ashu

Report · Nov 15, 2017

The issue is that links are not working in the PDF/A compliant document until I click on "Enable Editing". Why would I need to enable editing for links to work? They used to work just by opening the document.

Report · Aug 19, 2017

I have the same problem with the latest version of Acrobat DC - see this file - none of the links, which used to work in the previous version now open in Mozilla Firefox

I have created a workaround for this problem which does not abrogate Adobe from needing to revert to allowing URLs embedded in pdf documents to be followed.

My document is produced in MS Excel and contains valid true links as formulae, but when saving as a .pdf file, only the text appears to be carried through, not the "true link". I have therefore had to create a macro to conditionally copy and paste each cell containing a true link into the cell where I want it when the condition pertains.

Please Adobe, revert to allowing textual urls to be followed.

Shared Files - Acrobat.com

Report · Aug 29, 2017

Hi all,

Acrobat and Reader DC update containing fix for this issue is now available. All existing installations of Acrobat and Reader will automatically be updated with this patch. If you want, you may manually trigger this update by opening the application and visiting Help > Check for Updates.

More details: Acrobat Help | Release notes | Acrobat DC and 2017, Acrobat Reader DC and 2017 | Update

Please let me know in case of any questions.

Thanks,

Ankit

Report · Nov 02, 2017

I have found it to work if you save to a PDF, but not print to a PDF. Another note - the links will actually open if I click 5 times without moving the cursor as it steps through highlighting parts of the document. Does it work this way for others having this issue?

Report · Nov 02, 2017

I too figured that out in regards to printing as PDF vs saving--and am doing it that way going forward. Unfortunately, that doesn't help retroactively all the 1000s of PDFs I've sent to customers in the past who purchased them already and who suddenly can't access links that are integral to the product itself--like Dave Ing above mentioned his own issues with this.

Regarding clicking 5x, those links do finally open when you do that! Good detective work. But again, customers are never going to figure that out, nor should they have to do all that troubleshooting when purchasing something that was advertised as having usable, clickable links. All they know is that something that was supposed to happen doesn't happen, and it makes me look bad, not Adobe.